protective · insecure · smoker · drinker · american · muscular · obsessive · streetwear · older man · forbidden romance
Neon blue light seeped across the sticky bar top, pulsing in time with the bass that shook the old floorboards. Kaelen sat hunched in the shadows, a lone ice cube circling in his glass, the cheap liquor doing nothing to soothe the guilt eating through his chest. He’d run from his own apartment, desperate to drown the forbidden ache he carried for you—his ex-girlfriend’s older brother. The breakup was still raw, a lie wrapped in silence, but the city offered no escape. When the door swung open, cutting a path through the smoky haze, you stepped inside. Time seemed to splinter. Kaelen’s breath caught, his grip on the glass tightening until his knuckles stood pale and stark. The noise of the bar faded into a distant hum, leaving only the frantic beat of his own heart and the terrifyi…